‘Wynonna Earp’ S2. E9: Betray The Ones You Love

Previously on Wynonna Earp, Wynonna went on a vision quest to learn the backstory behind the Earp curse and how everything we’ve seen so far this season is interconnected: the Widows and Constance Clootie were the wives of the demon sheriff of Purgatory Clootie, who laid the curse on Wyatt Earp; Bobo Del Rey was a friend of Wyatt who was the first person shot by Peacemaker after the curse was laid; Father Juan Carlos was present at the entrapment of the Widows; and the third seal is Doc’s ring, which belonged to Constance. We also learned for sure that Waverly is not a full Earp, that Bobo has acted to protect Waverly in the past, and that due to Wynonna being dead for 77 seconds, Bobo has resurrected. Deep breath.

When we begin this episode, Wynonna and Waverly are practicing sparring. This is AWESOME because they both look great and Waverly is getting to show off some ninja skills, but also now I feel bad about myself because I can’t do a back handspring period and Wynonna is doing it while pregnant. The sisters are preparing for a showdown with the Widows. (Favorite line of the episode: Waverly notes of Constance Clootie, “Her outfits were so fiercely non-polygamous.”) Wynonna, who is surprisingly chipper given that doom is constantly looming over their heads, asks for and is granted the night off, but doesn’t let on that she knows what/where the third seal is.

Somewhere in town, Doc walks into a very old timey shop and talks with the shopkeeper in equally old timey language. Seriously. That’s the only way to describe it. The shopkeeper is interested in Doc’s ring, but Doc won’t sell. The shopkeeper shows him a painting of what looks like an Earp girl looking at the Homestead, so of course Doc immediately says he’ll buy it. After he leaves, we see that the shopkeeper is a demon (complete with spiked tail, in case there was any doubt) who killed the real shopkeeper. At this point, Purgatory is probably 90% demons, 10% oblivious humans.

Why does Doc not immediately get suspicious that someone happens to have a painting of the Earp homestead in a town that’s 90% people who want to kill the Earps?

At Shorty’s, Dolls offers Rosie a spa gift card for her help in recreating the serum to keep his inner dragon in check. Doc shows up and announces he’ll be having dinner at Wynonna’s that night, then leaves with nary a look to Rosie, whose face pinches together tightly as she seems on the verge of tears. Some people just don’t belong to anyone but themselves.

At Scooby HQ, Waverly is totally not over Nicole’s actions from the last episode and she walks the border between passive aggressive and aggressive. The following is their actual exchange:

Nicole: A body’s been found.

Waverly: Oh, you sure it wasn’t someone else’s body that you stole and hid because you thought you had the right to make that utterly not your decision?

The body, which has been burned beyond recognition, wears the ID of Tucker Gardner (although really, who hasn’t seen enough CSI episodes to know it’s probably some other person’s body that was burned to allow the real criminal to escape?). Beth Gardner shows up to identify the body when it’s taken to the sheriff’s office. Or rather, the Widow in Beth’s body shows up and she’s about as good at pretending to be a normal human being as a 9th grade drama student is at playing Juliet Capulet in the school production of “Romeo and Juliet.” She pretends to faint and when she awakens, Waverly is there taking care of her.

Not Beth tries to make it sound cute that Tucker was a creepy stalker obsessed with Waverly, but Nicole, who has just walked into the room, is having none of it. After Not Beth leaves, taking with her the ring Tucker was wearing, Nicole and Waverly start fighting over the boundaries in their relationship and the moral implications of hiding information from your partner. Like every lesbian couple does at least twice a month.